Tag Archives: Vuja de

Soon, Trump will formally inherit the titles of the office of the president such as “leader of the free world,” “the most powerful man in the world,” and “commander in chief.” But there is one title he will bring to the office with him. It is a title no occupant of the White House has been entitled to for over a century; and that is the moniker of “disrupter in chief.” Not since Teddy Roosevelt was elevated to the office of president by the assassination of William McKinley in 1901 has an individual assumed the presidency more determined to disrupt the status quo as is Trump.

It is apparent that no longer will there be a feeling of “Déjà vu” as Trump settles into the routine of being president. Instead, Trump will bring to reality the concept of “Vuja de” coined by the late comedian and insightful urban philosopher George Carlin.

We are all familiar with the term Déjà vu which literally means “already seen” or the general vernacular of “been there, done that.” On the other hand, as Carlin explained it, Vuja de is the uneasy feeling people have when the status quo is being disrupted and they are in a place they have never been before; not knowing how the rules will change. That uncertainly is the uneasy feeling now being experienced by the political establishment, the mainstream media and a majority of American voters as the era of Trump begins.

Trump is not the first disrupter. Just the first disrupter to lead government

Disrupters in business – those who change the way the game is played – are, when successful, legendary and revered as visionaries. Some of these historical business disrupters would include Henry Ford, Bill Gates at Microsoft, Steve Jobs at Apple, Phil Knight at Nike, Fred Smith of FedEx and Richard Branson of Virgin Group. All of these individuals thrived in the world of Vuja de by being comfortable doing what others had not already seen to do.

While naturally resistant and comfortable with the status quo, the business world has been susceptible to a Vuja de approach because of the power vested in the leader. But government has never been exposed to a true Vuja de type leader, because by its very structure – the constitution – our government is based on the concept of defused power that is intended to assure the consistent continuity of the status quo. Power is passed from one president to another, while the Republican and Democratic Parties rotate supremacy within the confines of government, the slow flow of the status quo remains. The players may change, but the way the game is played does not change; the rules remain constant. At least they have up to this point.

The intriguing aspect of a Trump presidency is that he will be the first person to bring a Vuja de business leadership style to the highest level of the government. It is an axiom that successful business leaders seek to do what has not been done to create the future, while the establishment that populates the government seek the repetition of what has been done to preserve the past. For many (in both business and government) the feeling of Vuja de is intimidating, while for others it is exhilarating. It will be beyond interesting to see how this conflict between Déjà vu and Vuja de will play out in government over the next four years.

It could well be that this conflict of diametrically opposed approaches to governing will create even more polarization and dysfunction in government. On the other hand, it may open our eyes to the idea that government, just as in business, can function more effectively if it is not shackled to the practice of doing the same thing, the same way it has always been done, because that’s the way it has always been.

A peek at a Vuja de world

We are already privy to a glimpse at how this clash of attitudes may play out in a Trump presidency. Trump has been roundly criticized in the media for being publicly skeptical of the “intelligence community” reporting that the Russian government sanctioned – indeed sponsored – cyber hacking efforts to influence the outcome of the presidential election. It is true that there are other factors at work here, but Vuja de leaders naturally challenge the conclusions of those in the status quo; especially when their conclusions are offered with no dissent. Even if the conclusions of the intelligence community are accurate, that does not mean the process of reaching them can’t be challenged. Trump has not denied the conclusions of the intelligence community, but he has challenged them to prove their point. I have no doubt that the intelligence leaders who presented their case to Trump last week had done much more work and were better prepared to present their case, than if they had not been challenged by Trump.

And history proves the point. In early 1961, John Kennedy, a new president in the continuum of the status quo, accepted, without challenge, the unanimous conclusion of the intelligence community that Castro was a weak leader and the people would rise up against him if America supported an invasion of Cuba. If Kennedy had been more of a Vuja de leader who was willing to challenge the establishment, the Bay of Pigs fiasco may never have happened.

There may be valid reasons to oppose or even fear a Trump presidency, but unfortunately many of those in the establishment of government and the media are dreading a Trump presidency simply because his style of leadership is so foreign to their traditional thinking. Trump’s style will force them to step out of their comfort zone and this engenders a queasy feeling of uncertainty and loss of power that comes with the surmised safety of the status quo.

The Vuja de style of leadership may fail miserably when applied to managing a government, but on the other hand, it just may be a new way to effectively manage government and make it work. One thing we know for sure is that Trump will not be a Déjà vu president.

Successful leaders seek to do what has not been done to create the future, while others seek the repetition of what has been done to preserve the past.

It was the comedian and insightful urban philosopher George Carlin who coined the concept of “Vuja de” to identify the uneasy feeling one has when they are in a place they have never been before. The “Vuja de” idea expressed by Carlin also serves as a solid basis for identifying the sometimes lonely feeling of being out front and ahead of the crowd in the world of business. For some, (far too many) the feeling of “Vuja de” is intimidating, while for others (far too few) it is exhilarating.

We are all familiar with the term “Déjà vu” which literally means “already seen.” While many business and political leaders seem most comfortable repeating “what has already been seen,” when Déjà vu is experienced on an individual level it creates a strange feeling that can be disconcerting, mind-numbing and depressing. The most familiar example of the concept of Déjà vu was explored in the classic 1993 comedy Ground Hog Day starring Bill Murray. In the movie Murray is forced to repeat the same day over and over again in a way that so frustrates him, he is almost driven to suicide. Unfortunately this is a frustration felt all too often by the many trapped in the today’s corporate world of Déjà vu.

A Business Principle on Crutches

The official motto of those who seek the consistency and security of Déjà vu in the business world is, “We’ve always done it this way!” Any effort to seek innovation or a better way to do things is suppressed by weak leaders who fear the uncertainty of Vuja de.

This desire for Déjà vu in business is not the exception, it is, unfortunately, the rule. This concept of seeing what has already been seen and doing what has already been done is at the core of how business leaders are trained, conditioned and motivated to perform. It starts in business schools, is reinforced in corporate organizations and validated by pricey business consultants. This triad of consistency and conformity acts as the perfect storm to implant the comfort of business Déjà vu and ward off the uncertainty and insecurity of Vuja de.

First off, top business schools – Harvard, Stanford, and Wharton – along with a horde of others, are all held up by the establishment as a ticket to future success in business. Indeed, these institutions do offer an excellent (if very expensive) primary education in the fundamentals of business. It is important and worthwhile to understand organization, structure, process and finance, but there is more to real leadership and ultimate success than learning the process and procedure of what has already been done.

These business schools do an exceptional job teaching and developing future corporate managers so long as success is defined as learning to do well what has been done in the past. This is a type of Déjà vu education. But there is another, more important, definition of success. It is a success that can be defined as building on what has been done in the past to do in the future what has not been done in the past. This is a type of Vuja de success. Unfortunately the accepted tactic of business schools is to teach future managers how to function in a Déjà vu world and little effort or attention is given to teaching the next generation of business leaders how to thrive in a Vuja de world, where the real future and success awaits.

Second, since most of those managing and leading in the corporate world are products of the traditional business school education, much of the current business culture is one of “this is the way we have always done it,” “going along to get along,” and the implementation of process and procedure to maintain the status quo. This creates the perfect fertile environment for the Déjà vu mentality of leadership.

The third leg of this Déjà vu mentality of management is the willing complicity – driven by high fees – of the ubiquitous army of conniving business consultants who seem to exist only to validate the propriety of the Déjà vu world of business management taught by business schools and practiced by most corporate doyennes. Using such grandiose and pompous concepts as “granular analysis,” “cascading theories of performance,” “best practices” and the ever-present standby “peer group analysis,” these business consultants are nothing more than the sycophants and toadies for the propagation of the Déjà vu management philosophy. And, those are their good points.

The American business model has done well in the past, but unfortunately the past is not the future. The world is changing even faster than Mitt Romney changes his positions on issues and in today’s world a successful leader needs to make history, not repeat history or they will be history.

The way to be in a position to make history is to seek to live in a Vuja de world. This can prove to be challenging, because it is always easier to copy the past, than it is to create the future. For some, stepping out of one’s comfort zone engenders the uneasy feeling of uncertainty and the loneliness of being out front of the herd, but that is where the opportunity of the future lives. And the future will belong to those who get there first.

Looking Ahead to Stay Ahead

The way to create and live comfortably in a Vuja de world is to constantly reminisce about the future. To reminisce about the future is to visualize the way you want the future to be, in the same way those in the Déjà vu world reminisce about the past. Reminiscing about the future will not enable a leader to predict the future, but it will focus their attention on the future and give them the opportunity to make the future. Living in a Vuja de world does not assure success – nothing can do that – but it does offer a distinct advantage over those reminiscing about the past in a Déjà vu world, because for them the future is always an unknown and intimidating surprise.

And the Moral of the Story …

The accepted model for most corporate leaders – how they are trained, conditioned and rewarded – is to live in a Déjà vu world. It is a comfortable world for many because the “best practices” have been identified, the performance of peers can be measured and the path of past success has been marked. There is, seemingly, a safety and security in learning and doing well what has been done well in the past. Unfortunately, while that notion appears to be true, it is not. The future is not about the past.

But there is another world. It is the world of Vuja de. It is a world of uncertainty that is only matched by the opportunity and success that comes with reminiscing about the future to do what has not been done in order to create the future. The Vuja de world calls for the courage to look past the past and to accept the ambiguity of doing what others fear to do in an effort to achieve success by getting to the future first.

There is a rewarding irony that comes with living in a Vuja de world. When those with a Vuja de mentality of leadership reminisce about the future, rather than the past, in order to create the future, it means that when the future does arrive, it is Déjà vu for them, because they have already been there.

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If history has taught us anything it is this: Progress or perish. Make history or you are history. Gone. Maybe even forgotten.
This was true of the great empires. They all learned, for better or sometimes worse, that individuals and institutions can make prodigious contributions to history by shaping the future, but when they failed to continue to make history, they became history: We know them now for what they did, not what they are doing.

ABOUT BOB MacDONALD

Founder of LifeUSA Insurance and retired CEO of Allianz Life, N.A., Bob MacDonald regularly blogs with timely, hard-hitting comments on almost every business subject from entrepreneurism to better management, smart business leadership, government and politics, and of course, the life insurance industry.

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Bob MacDonald, founder of LifeUSA Insurance and retired CEO of Allianz Life, N.A., regularly blogs with timely, hard-hitting comments on almost every business subject from entrepreneurism to better
management, smart business leadership, government and politics, and of course, the life insurance industry.